MEANING: verb intr.: To satisfy the minimum requirements in a given situation.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by the scientist Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001) in 1956, apparently as a blend of satisfy + suffice. Earliest documented use: 1561 (as a synonym of the word satisfy).

NOTES: While it may appear that satisficing is taking the easy way out, there are times when it’s the right thing to do. It can be bewildering to consider all the options that are available. Often it’s best to pick one or two important criteria and weed out the options, especially when stakes are low.Sometimes making a suboptimal decision is best, when the alternative is decision paralysis because there are so many options. To satisfice is OK, we don’t always have to maximize or optimize. Sometimes good enough is more than good enough.________________________________

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin senectus (old age), from senex (old). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sen- (old), which is also the ancestor of senior, sir, sire, senate, senile, Spanish señor, and surly (which is an alteration of sirly, as in sir-ly). Earliest documented use: 1796._____________________

NOTES: When we bring in a word from another language, sometimes we borrow it as it is and at other times make a literal translation, also known as a loan translation. The word weltanschauung appears so useful that English has borrowed the original form and also made a loan translation: world view.__________________________________

DELTANSCHAUUNG - familiarity with the waterways at the mouth of the Mississippi

NOTES: This word was coined by combining four Latin terms flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, all meaning something of little or no value, which were listed in the well-known Eton Latin Grammar of Eton College in the UK. The word seems to be popular in the US government. It has been heard from the mouths of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Senator Robert Byrd, and Senator Jesse Helms, among others. A related word is floccipend._________________________

FLOCCI-NAUCCI-NIHILI-PILI-FICATION - declaring Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and his siblings to be trivial and utterly worthless (they were, you will recall, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter)

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